1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a toilet covering hinge assembly with damping capability, and more particularly to a hinge assembly capable of damping the motion of a toilet seat and/or lid moving from its raised position to a lowered position upon a toilet, yet moving the same with a slight resistance from the lowered position to the raised position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has been an increased demand for toilet covering hinge assemblies that damp the motion of the toilet covering, such as a toilet seat and a toilet lid, in order to prevent accidental falling of the toilet covering upon the toilet with an unpleasant loud impact noise. To give such damping capability to the toilet covering, it has been proposed in Japanese Utility Model Early Publication No. 2-6594 (published on Jan. 17, 1990) to utilize a dashpot in combination with a hinge shaft mounting the toilet covering to the rear of a toilet for rotation of the toilet covering between a lowered position and a raised position. The dashpot comprises a cylinder containing a volume of damper fluid such as grease or the like and a rotor rotatably received in the cylinder as being surrounded by the damper fluid. The rotor, which is connected to the hinge shaft to be rotatable together with the toilet covering, includes a plurality of flaps pivotally supported on the rotor. As the toilet covering is rotated upward from the lowered position to the raised position, the flaps are caused to move into a folded condition on the outer surface of the rotor where they receive less resistance from the damper fluid, enabling the toilet covering to be lifted with a slight force by the user. On the other hand, as the toilet covering is manipulated to rotate down from the raised position to the lowered position, the flaps are caused to extend into an unfolded position where they receive increased resistance from the damper fluid, thus dampening the motion the toilet covering moving in that direction. In this assembly, however, the flaps are supported by means of pivot pins to the rotor, which inevitably incurs the increased number of parts with the attendant assembly complexity.